


Best Pilot In The Resistance

by Theyna_Shipper



Series: Star Wars One-Shots [26]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: "I'm the best pilot in the resistance", Angst, Battlestar Galactica elements, Ben Solo is alive, Ben Solo's Hair, F/M, Fluff, Gen, HEA, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, No need to know Battlestar, Pilot Ben Solo, Post-TRoS, They don't talk about feeEEELings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 11:02:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25349653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theyna_Shipper/pseuds/Theyna_Shipper
Summary: “What’s your callsign gonna be, Solo?”“Supreme Leader,” one soldier suggests sarcastically.Angry suggestions of “Kylo”, “Starkiller”, “Traitor”, and more fly around. People are shouting, protesting his addition as a full-time pilot.The sound of a glass slamming on the bar silences the complaints. “How about Falcon?”Soft! Resistance Pilot Ben Solo
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Star Wars One-Shots [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1637683
Comments: 8
Kudos: 89





	Best Pilot In The Resistance

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by
> 
> -The post about Ben saying "I'm the best pilot in the Resistance
> 
> -The bit in Battlestar Galactica where (spoilers!) Sharon needs a new callsign when she rejoins the fleet
> 
> -Generally a lot of battlestar (though I'm only on season 3)
> 
> Pyramid, the ballgame, is also from Battlestar

“Hey,” Poe calls to Rey as she finishes servicing one of the ships. “Your boyfriend needs to start pulling his weight around here.”

Rey bends over to pick up her toolbag, deliberately avoiding eye contact. “He’s not my boyfriend.” Actually, they’ve barely spoken since Exogol, real relationships being much more complicated than heated post-battle kisses. Certainly, he wouldn’t still be here if it weren’t for her testimony, but the idea of actually _talking_ to him is too much. 

“Yeah, tell that to those longing glances,” Poe mutters. 

Rey rolls her eyes. “Whatever. And he’s already working night and day giving your Order intel. What more do you want him doing?”

“His intel is getting a little outdated, actually. What we really need is more people with hands-on skills, do you know if he’s up for any of that?”

Rey shoulders her bag. “Why don’t you ask him? He’s right there.” She gestures to where Ben is sitting, about ten feet away, fixing the antenna of a droid. 

Poe shrugs. “Suit yourself.”

* * *

“Hey, Solo!”

Ben’s not really used to this form of address, but it is the kindest one he gets on base most of the time. Other than Rey- but they’re clearly not ready to talk about, well, anything. 

He stands up from the rock he was perched on. “General.” It’s weird to address someone barely older than you, whom you grew up with, as ‘General’, but it makes as much sense as anything else in his life right now. 

“I’ll get right to the point,” Poe begins. “Can you fly a ship?”

Ben snorts involuntarily. “I’m the best pilot in the Resistance.”

Poe cocks an eyebrow. They’ve both heard that before. “We’ll see.” 

The fleet agrees that Ben doesn’t need training flights. His flight skills were famous both in the Resistance and the First Order. After a brief test in an X-Wing, he’s cleared to fly. 

The longest conversation he’s ever had with Rey occurs soon after this, in the hangar as he’s looking over his ship.  
“Hey.”

He looks up. “Hi.” How do you start this conversation? What words will say without saying, _We’re Dyads or soulmates, whatever that means, and did we really kiss, and what does that mean?_

Rey draws circles in the dust on the floor. “I heard you got added to the flight rotation.

“Yeah. Poe said you need more fighter pilots.”

Rey nods. “I’m, uh, not flying today. But good luck. You’ll be great.”

“Um. Thanks.” 

He notices Rose, who’s servicing some of the other ships, look over and roll her eyes. 

“Is this x-wing 18?” Rey asks, running her hands down the sides of the ship. 

“I think so, yeah. Why?”

“Nothing. It’s just- she’s the bird I usually fly.” Rey smiles a little. “Funny coincidence, huh?”

They both know very little in their life up to this point has been ‘funny coincidence’. “Yeah. It is.”

“Well, um-” Rey continues as she starts to leave. “May the Force be with you?”

Ben nods gratefully. “You too.”

* * *

It’s amazing how much a little trick flying in an x-wing endears you to people. No wonder Poe Damneron is so popular. While Ben’s certainly still no favorite at the Resistance Base, he’s able to sit at their makeshift bar and be left alone, even enjoy a drink. 

Halfway through the night, he feels someone push him out among the other pilots at their favorite table, and a drink shoved into his hands. 

“Let’s have a toast to our newest pilot,” Jessika Pava announces. Some of the gathered fighters raise their glasses, but others grumble and look away. “To Ben Solo!”

While Ben sincerely wishes he could be anywhere but here, the bar is mixed with toasts “to Ben Solo”, but also with boos. He’s used to it. He’d rather not have any attention at all. 

“Hey, doesn’t he need a call sign?” Lt. Connix suggests. “If he’s going to be a full time pilot now?”

All the pilots have a call sign, something unique to refer to them quickly over the comms. For today, they just called him “Solo”, but generally names are not used. 

“You’re right, Kaydel,” Poe agrees. “What’s your callsign gonna be, Solo?”

“Supreme Leader,” one soldier suggests sarcastically. 

Angry suggestions of “Kylo”, “Starkiller”, “Traitor”, and more fly around. People are shouting, protesting his addition as a full-time pilot. 

The sound of a glass slamming on the bar silences the complaints. “How about Falcon?”

* * *

Later Ben’s told that he looked like ‘a total fool’. Pilots are sparing in their compliments and generous in their gibes. 

Someday Rey will tell him he looked ‘adorably flustered’. 

Right now it’s a safe bet he’s bit right through his liquor glass. 

“First ship he learned to fly. Put that name in the air again, hm?”

“Rey, I don’t think-” Ben starts to mutter. 

“I like it,” Jessika agrees. “Nice ring to it.”

Poe shrugs. “Can’t think of a better one.”

Rey grins, tossing her arm over his shoulder in a casual way that makes his skin feel like its own entity. “It’s settled, then. To Falcon!” 

“To Falcon!” the bar agrees, the complainers now silenced. Almost everyone listens to Rey.

Rey smiles up at him, slightly tipsy but pleased with herself and Ben. “Welcome to the fleet, Falcon”

* * *

“I haven’t been on the rotation for two weeks in a row in ages, Rose. I’ve checked with all the other pilots, they’ve all worked at least two weeks in a row before, except Ben. We can both do more flights than you’re giving us,” Rey complains to the Commander in charge of the flight rotations. 

Rose doesn’t look up from her flight schedule. “Yeah, the teams are selected based on how well they work together.”

Rey crosses her arms. “What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“It means we can’t put you two on the same rotation. You’re afraid to so much as say hi to each other. _One_ practice flight together, and you wouldn’t even touch your comms. Quite frankly, you’re useless so long as you’re in the air together.”

“What do you want me to do about that?” she replies with an eye roll. 

Rose cocks an eyebrow. “Do the war a favor and just kiss already.”

* * *

“Hey, think fast!”

Ben doesn’t even need to look up to catch the Pyramid ball Rey tosses him. A combination of combat reflexes, and sensing her movement in the Force (the Dyad isn’t something that just turns off) makes it so easy it’s almost laughable. 

Now remains the fact that they’re talking to each other. 

“I figure we could both use this to blow off some steam,” she continues. “Care to play?”

Ben agrees, and in a few minutes they’re facing off on the court. The game is intense enough that they’re barely talking, just shuffling and dribbling and pushing past each other. Though it’s hard to play a game when you can predict each other’s next move with near-perfect accuracy. 

When Rey finally scores on Ben, and they take a break for water, he addresses what he’s been feeling all morning. 

“Is there something you wanted to tell me? You feel… agitated.”

Rey raises an eyebrow. Have they been anything but agitated these past weeks?

“More agitated,” he remedies. 

“Rose says we don’t have good chemistry in the air,” Rey admits. “We can’t fly together, don’t communicate, make each other nervous.”

“Is that why our rotations have been so screwed up?”

She nods. “Do I make you nervous?”

_Are you beautiful, perfect, and a hundred times better than me? Did you save me in every possible way? Do you make me **nervous**?_

As his thoughts spiral in this direction, he realizes Rey’s shaking with- laughter? 

“You heard all that, didn’t you?” he mutters, burying his head in his hands. 

_Yes,_ Rey tells him. He feels her hands sliding underneath the lapels of his flight jacket, and she’s biting her lip nervously. “Ben-”

“Rey?” He asks softly. 

“Something Rose said,” she continues. 

“About our flying?”

“Sort of. She, um- well it’s hard to say.”

“You can tell-” But he’s cut off by her lips, fast and hungry against his, and pulling away far quicker than he’d like. 

“Yeah,” she decides. “Rose was right. That’s much better.”

* * *

“SOLO!” 

Ben twitches nervously at Poe’s shout. 

“You’re late, your uniform’s damaged, and there’s no way that haircut is regulation! You’re an embarrassment to the fleet.”

There’s a difference in the way Poe berates him, something that’s friendly and loving in its own weird way. Stupid flyboys. 

“I like his hair the way it is!” Rey shouts as she climbs into her x-wing. 

“Yes, well, Rey can’t give an objective opinion on this, so get a ponytail or get a haircut,” Poe snaps back. 

Rey looks him up and down. “Ponytail. Definitely ponytail.”

“You heard the woman, get that in a ponytail,” Poe shouts to him. “Now get in your cockpits! We’re already behind schedule.”

As Ben ascends into the air, he sees Rey flying his point. Her grin is visible even through the helmet. 

“Scavenger to Falcon, comm test, do you copy?”

“Falcon to Scavenger, I copy!”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments appreciated!


End file.
